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The Roman Pottery of Kent
by Dr Richard J. Pollard  -  Chapter 4  page 154
Doctoral thesis completed in 1982, published 1988

represent a local fourth-century development. These include dog-dishes with pointed rims and an external groove (cf. Lyne and Jefferies 1979, Class 6A.4), bead-and-stub-
flange dishes (ibid., Class 6C.1) and bead-and-angular-
flange dishes (ibid., Class 5B.8), forms not recognised in BB2 in west Kent or at Mucking. They comprise some 35 per cent of the BB2 in the mid fourth-century ‘flood-silt’, and lesser proportions in other deposits of early to mid fourth-century date. BB2 of all forms was apparently little-used in the late fourth century, and production may have been discontinued altogether. BB2, Dorset and undesignated (east Kent?) BB1, reduced sand-tempered unslipped wheel-thrown ware, and flint-and-sand tempered ware (see below) all apparently declined in use in the third quarter of the century, in contrast with a marked increase in quantities of grog-tempered ware. The number of pottery production units in operation in east Kent may have dropped, therefore, but it is equally plausible that this period saw an intensification of production of grog-tempered ware involving an increase in the numbers of potters. This may reflect a change in fashion, but it should be remembered that in all of these wares the range of forms comprised jars, dog-dishes and bead-and-flange dishes, with others such as lids accounting for small proportions of the output. The economies of production, rather than fashion, may have dictated the course of fabric development in the late fourth century; technologically, the grog-tempered ware was less accomplished than these other wares (excepting flint-sand ware), with wheel-
throwing and trimming not practised, and vessels presumably demanded less time to produce, rendering it a ware suitable for ‘spare-time’ production, by ‘household industries’.
   Local east Kent wares using tempering agents additional to, or in place of, sand may be divided into four groups: grog/sand-and-grog-tempered ‘Native Coarse Wares’ (q.v. 4.111.3), late grog-tempered ware (4.IV.3), 

flint/flint-and-sand tempered ware, and wares with miscellaneous tempers. The first-named may have continued in production into the mid-fourth century on a very small scale. It had evidently fallen into decline in the late third (4.IV.3), but sherds occur sporadically in fourth-century contexts in Canterbury (e.g. Jenkins 1950, no. 99), including 2 per cent in the mid fourth-century ‘flood-silts’ (Appendix 5). Differentiation between this Ware and high-fired ‘late Roman grog-tempered’ ware is often arbitrary, however, as there is some formal overlap particularly in the jar range. Late Roman grog-tempered ware comprises between 5 per cent and 25 per cent of assemblages of the first half of this century at Canterbury, exhibiting a steady increase in quantities which accelerated in the latter half, when up to 75 per cent of the pottery of east Kent was in this ware (Appendix 5: at Canterbury both sherd counts and vessel rim equivalents have generated this statistic). Bushe-Fox’s impression of the pottery from the Temples site at Richborough (1932) would seem to be in accord with this proportion. By the end of the fourth century grog-tempered ware may have been virtually the only coarse ware in use on most sites in east Kent.
   The last two local wares to be described appear to have had a restricted regional distribution, in contrast with the widespread ‘Native Coarse Ware’ and grog-tempered ware. The flint-and sand tempered ware has been recognised at Canterbury in several contexts (Pollard forthcoming, d), at Wye in the pit group (Pollard forthcoming, a, coarse ware fabrics II and III) and as a single sherd at Birchington (unpublished: Well 2). It is hand-made, often with uneven surfaces, reduced, with inclusions of flint in moderate amounts (up to 5 mm. in size) and ill-assorted quartz also in moderate quantities (c. 0.25—3 mm. in size); minor inclusions range from naturally-occurring mica, iron ore and chalk to grog and, in one sherd, pink mortar. Most vessels are facet-burnished, and rims occasionally exhibit signs of trimming. The forms comprise

Page 154

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